Kyiv commemorates 70th anniversary of Crimean Tatar deportation

May 18, Crimean Tatar community in Kyiv, together with Ukrainians, commemorated the 70th anniversary of tragic events of Crimean Tatar history- the deportation.

Earlier, on May 17, the event ‘Light a fire in your heart’ took place on Mykhailivska square in Kyiv with and lasted for hour.

As part of the event the contours of the Crimean peninsula, the number 70, the contours of the Crimean Tatar Tamga national symbol and the words ‘No genocide’ were formed from candles.

Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Jemilev, who was banned from entering Crimea, also attended the event.

“Now the Crimean Tatars are in a very difficult situation, like the one 70 years ago,” notes Tamila Tasheva, the event’s organiser and the head of the media department of the Crimean Tatar brotherhood in Kyiv.

The deportation began on 18 May 1944 in all Crimean-inhabited localities. More than 32,000 NKVD troops participated in this action. The forced deportees were given only 30 minutes to gather personal belongings, after which they were loaded onto cattle trains and moved out of Crimea. The lack of accommodation and food, the failure to adapt to new climatic conditions and the rapid spread of diseases had a heavy demographic impact during the first years of exile.